Artist Rosie Giblin unveils “community kitchen” for women in the Jungle, (Calais) and Dunkerque refugee camps, and high flyers from across the world gather to mark 25 years of Product Design Engineering as Degree Show 2016 unveiled
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| Rosie Giblin’s Snack Shack |
Sculpture and Environmental Art student, Rosie Giblin, today unveiled a special “snack shack” in the Tontine Building ahead of the public opening of Degree Show on 18 June 2016. 22-year old Rosie from Dumfries and Galloway has been helping out in the Jungle (Calais) and Dunkerque refugee camps where her mother is working, and will return to northern France after Degree Show. Her snack shack will become a community kitchen supporting women in the camps. Rosie also put out a call today for donations for the women and children in particular.
“I’ll be taking a truck over to France after graduation and would be grateful for any donations that people could give to help the refugees. Winter season sleeping bags
and blankets, warm waterproof jackets (particularly in small and medium sizes)
, good quality complete tents
and good condition walking and hiking boots would be particularly welcome,” she said. “Also smaller items such as toiletries, warm hats and scarves for children would be very much appreciated.”
“Degree Show is the culmination of many years of hard work by graduating students,”says Professor Tom Inns, Director of The Glasgow School of Art. “It is an opportunity for them to showcase their innovation and creativity, and also for the public to see and buy work by a new generation of talent.”
“Our students often address issues of importance in contemporary life through their work, like our Sculpture and Environmental Art student, Rosie Giblin, whose snack shack, which will be taken to northern France after Degree Show, highlights the work being done in the refugee camps in Calais and Dunkerque. Others offer innovative improvements to products and services."
“This year is a landmark year as we celebrate 25 years of Product Design Engineering. Professor Dugald Cameron’s vision in setting up the programme in partnership with Glasgow University has paid huge dividends with many graduates going on to apply their skills in leading roles with global design companies or through their own successful businesses. The range of innovative products being showcased by this year’s cohort of graduating students demonstrates how PDE at the GSA continues to be in the vanguard of design innovation."
Degree Show 2016 is sponsored by Maclay, Murray & Spens LLP. Chief Executive, Kenneth Shand said:
“The Glasgow School of Art is a world-class institution. Its graduates consistently achieve the highest accolades in a diverse range of creative fields. We are proud to be associated with it.”
Degree Show runs from 18 – 25 June 2015 in the Bourdon Building,
and Reid Building (Garnethill) and Tontine Building (Merchant City)
MFA is on at The Glue Factory from 16 – 25 June 2015
Ends
For further information contact:
Lesley Booth
0779 941 4474
@GSofAMedia
PDE 25
Highflying designers from across the world will gather in Glasgow this weekend to celebrate 25 years of Product Design Engineering. Established by the industrial designer and former GSA Director, Professor Dugald Cameron, the programme has produced some of the leading designers of their generation. Graduates have gone on to senior roles in companies including Apple, Dyson, Lego, TomTom, BMW and more. Others have established their own successful companies including Fearsome(sponsors of PDE 2016), 4c Design– creators of the iconic Queen’s Baton for the 2014 Commonwealth games – and Aircraft Medical, which was recently sold to Medtronic plc for $110 million.
Graduates including Ken McCorkindale, Director at Cramasie; Scott McGuire, Global Engineering Director Dyson; Amy Corbett, Senior Designer at Lego; Gavin Spence, Sr. Product Manager Sports TomTom and Kate Farrell Group Leader, Functional Design at Cambridge Consultants, are among the graduates returning for the celebration.
“It was one of most memorable days of my life when the Institution of Mechanical Engineers gave its enthusiastic accreditation to the Production Design Engineering programme,” says Prof. Cameron. “It was almost certainly the first time that they had been engaged with an art school at undergraduate level. The students overwhelmed them and ensured our success.”
“PDE recognizes that experiences and innovation come from bringing together design and technology,” says Etienne Iliffe-Moon (PDE - 1994), Director of Industrial Design BMW (San Francisco). “I was sold on PDE the day I turned up for the interview,” adds Scott McGuire (PDE 2003) Global Engineering Director Dyson. “More like a design review, the discussion was all around my product ideas for a new world that would solve tomorrow’s challenges. The pitch and rationale for the pre-work was that PDE wanted to create the best British Innovators, Engineers and Designers of the future. Straight out of High School, I couldn’t be more inspired by that bold ambition.”
“4c is a company providing outsourced innovation, and I like to think it is my version of everything that I absorbed culturally, academically and practically from PDE,” adds Robin Smith (PDE 2001)Director, 4c Design
“I not only walked away with a Masters degree, but with a life changing set of skills and understanding of people and issues. The people I met and the experiences I had, have unquestionably shaped the person I am today, and I wouldn’t be where I am without the foundation that PDE gave me” adds Kate Farrell (PDE – 2007) Group Leader, Functional Design, Cambridge Consultants.
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| David Brook’s vIrTUsCope |
Among the designs unveiled by the current cohort of PDE students are David Brook’s Virtu Scope - a new approach to surgical training, making it affordable, accessible, engaging and fun; Connor McFarlane’s Wa’er - a reinvention and reintroduction the public drinking fountain for the city of Glasgow; andDetecht - an instant solution to easily integrate sound therapy into day to day life, to manage tinnitus and learn to habituate, created by Zoe Miller.
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| Claire Harvey’s Pod+ |
Chronos - eyewear designed by Adam Rosero is aimed to help people suffering from disrupted circadian rhythms, particularly shift workers; Ross MacLean’sOneBrew aimsto simplify the brewing process and reduce the physical footprint of the equipment; and Claire Harvey’s Pod+ isa submersible wheelchair, which has been developed as an addition to the award winning platform lift, the Poolpod, that lowers swimmers into the pool in a dignified way.
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| Keir McCluskey’s Ground Up |
Hive x – a redesign of the traditional top bar beehive by Faidon Filipsson will offer a more natural environment for the bees; Sophie Hamilton’sLightlines is an innovation to help nurses easily identify IV lines when patients have multiple lines. Estimated saving to NHS of introducing the innovation is around £3,000 per ICU nurse per year. Keir McCluskey’s Ground Up is an environmentally friendly, reusable coffee cup that challenges the disposable nature of society and subverts our perception of waste. Used coffee grounds are mixed with a plant-based bioresin to make an innovative material.
MACKINTOSH SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AT THE GSA
Stage 3, 4 and 5 Architecture students are once again showing at Degree Show in the Bourdon Building (Garnethill). Among the projects on show in 2016 is The Liveable City, an initiative undertaken by Stage 4 students with Brian Evans, Professor of Urbanism at the GSA, and James Stockford of Harvard University Graduate School. Aninternationally respected expert on social housing and community development Stockford, was commissioned by the US congress to undertake a Public Housing Operating Cost Study and he served on the Cambridge MA Housing Authority for 30 years. He is at the GSA on a Fulbright Fellowship.
Among the contexts explored by Stage 3 Architecture students was the site of the GSA’s new Creative Campus, Highlands and Islands. Blair Steading is a group of Listed Italianate buildings on the Altyre Estate near Forres. Eugenio Cappuccio says “I believe strongly in the importance of context, and a careful understanding of the urban fabric into which architecture should be woven, be it cultural, social, functional or aesthetic. An emphasis on transition requires subtlety in form. In order to achieve that harmony between old and new, it was necessary to create moments where there is a balance of form and texture. Framing instances of the old architecture using the new, this created a juxtaposition of different periods within a common typological style.”
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| Eugenio Cappuccio |
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| Alexander Mackison |
In Altyre Pottery, Alexander Mackison likewise aimed to weave new architecture into the ongoing dialogue of an evolving fabric. Mackison was also part of a group of Stage 3 Architecture and second year PDE students working on a live community project - Garnethill Park– which looked to introduce delicate architectural elements to create a new life for a unique urban green space close to the GSA.
See Stage 3 Architecture projects in London at 70 – 77 Cowcross Street, EC1M on 2 and 3 July 2016.
SCHOOL OF DESIGN
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| Naomi Scott: “Britannia” goblet |
Students across seven programmes in the School of Design are showing work in the Reid Building at Degree Show this year. Interactive Design students' work is in the Reid Auditorium, meanwhile on the ground floor work by Silversmithing & Jewellery and Fashion and Textiles students is on show in the Reid Gallery and Reid Corridor. Among the Silversmithing & Jewellery pieces on show are creations by Naomi Scott. A background in textiles has informed her designs which incorporate drapery and fold with free flowing lines bringing elegance and softness to a hard material.
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| Mariam Syed: Woven prayer mat |
Among the textiles projects being showcased is a prayer rug by Mariam Syed. Mariam says, "when my son turned seven I wanted to present him with his own prayer rug to cherish. But after endless browsing, I realized that the prayer rugs available were the traditional Persian designs in mostly dark colours and an image of the Kaaba or the Medina Mosque. To encourage my son to pray, I decided to design a prayer rug that was both exciting and encouraging for a young child.”
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| Lucy Payne and Maureen Cunningham (Photo: mark Gibson) |
On the first and second floors students on the three Communication Design pathways – photography, illustration and graphics – present their projects. Among the illustration students is 22-year old Lucy Payne from New Mills whose project focuses on “unsung heroes” throwing a spotlight on the GSA cleaners. “I chose to follow and document the women who clean the school as they often go unnoticed by many of the staff and students,” says Lucy. “I wanted to highlight the hard work they do.” Lucy chatted to the cleaners and sketched them then translated the drawings into etchings. She brought them together into a book which gives a personal look at the women and the jobs they do. The book is called 'There's More To Us Than Just a Flossy'. “The name was thought up by the cleaners,” explains Lucy. “A flossy being a sweeping brush.” Lucy also remade the traditional cleaning tabard, which is normally navy blue and plain, by using a brightly coloured fabric, printed with her drawings
Meanwhile Sophia Sheppard and Emma Levy, Communication Design students from the photography pathway, have looked at a traditional boat building story and international environmental issues.
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| Sophia Sheppard: With The Rising Tide |
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| Emma Levy: National Park |
Sophia Sheppard has made a beautiful short documentary film, ‘With The Rising Tide’, which is about communities coming together through a boat building project. The Scottish Rowing Project’ started in Anstruther in Fife. Supported by the The Scottish Fisheries Museum, the first St Ayles Skiff was built in 2009. Today hundreds of boats have been built all over the UK as well as further afield in the US, Canada and New Zealand. The film explores themes associated with our seafaring heritage, our relationship with the sea and a passion for rowing. Looking on some of the people who have been involved in various boat building projects around Scotland, the film particularly focuses on Frank Whyte, whom the central narrative of the film is structured. A boat builder and fisherman from Findhorn, Franks enthusiasm and positivity for the boats, rowing and the sea is inspirational. Sadly, just after filming had finished, Frank drowned whilst out on one of his beloved boats in the Moray Firth and it is to him the film has been dedicated.
Emma Levyhas produced an extensive observational photography project called ‘National Park’, which explores themes associated with national identity, borders, ethnic tensions and environmental issues in a post conflict region. Using a blend of documentary, landscape and portraiture compiled together in a beautifully designed and intimate book, Emma takes us on a journey through The Sharr Mountain National Park in Kosovo, where the physical ecology continues to degenerate with pollution, illegal logging, and over development. The tone of the work is whispered and implied rather than specific, it is as much about the whole rather than individual images. There is an overall sense of something brooding - the unsaid and the hidden. The park like the people within it, still bares the bruises of a brutal conflict.
Students from Interior Design, Product Design and PDE are on showcasing work on the 4th floor of the Reid Building. Among the Interior Design students is Erlend Firth whose Get Your Mackintosh On mural for Glasgow’s Virgin Money Lounge was unveiled last week.
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| Textured bank cards, part of a Product Design Live project with RBS |
Among the product design projects being showcased is a major “live” project undertaken by GSA students in partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland. A collaborative project between the two institutions, it explored the future of banking and financial services in the UK, with a focus on Generation Y (current 16 – 25 year olds). This generation has little conception of or attachment to traditional financial services, therefore RBS sees them as incredibly influential in terms of how they design and develop services. There were four research domains identified by RBS as particularly interesting in terms of Gen Y: 'Saving and Spending', 'Safety and Security', 'New Values' and the 'Omnichannel Experience’. Groups of students worked on each domain with students and RBS staff exchanging knowledge, sharing ideas and ways of working to inform the direction the project took and the shape the outcomes. The Saving and Spending team designed a series of objects entitled ‘Feeling Financial Health’: textured bankcards which represent various stages of how financial health could be interpreted and displayed. The cards change state to reflect the financial situation of the user in real time.
See Silversmithing & Jewellery and Textiles graduates in London at New Designers from 29 June 2016 - 2 July; Communication Design graduates will be showing work in The Brew Shoreditch on 1-2 July; Interaction Design graduates will showcase work at New Designers from 6 – 9 July.
SCHOOL OF FINE ART
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| Painting and Printmaking student, Georgina Clapham’s, Ideal Portrait of a Man |
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| Fine Art Photography student Megan Roberts’ Urine Cake |
Work by over 100 Fine Art students across Fine Art Photography, Painting & Printmaking and Sculpture & Environmental Art is installed over two floors of the Tontine Building. Among the works on show are large-scale sculptural pieces such as SEA student Rosie Giblin’s Snack Shack, video and sound works, multi-media installations, photography and paintings including Painting & Printmaking student, Georgina Clapham’s, portraits of fellow students. One of her works, Ideal Portrait of a Man is featured on the Degree Show marketing materials. Georgina says of the work: “The subject depicted is a transgender woman; it is a contemporary response to the 'Ideal Beauty Portraits' popular in Renaissance Italy which epitomised a male idealisation of female beauty.” Meanwhile Fine Art Photographystudent Megan Roberts’ Urine Cake is exactly what it says on the tin.
In the Glue Factory 24 international Master of Fine Art students also unveiled work. The show has been sponsored for the fourth year by citizenM Glasgow which is also showing a curated group of pieces by past and present MFA students in the hotel.
"citizenM is delighted to be supporting the MFA Degree Show at The Glasgow School of Art for the fourth year. We have a strong affiliation with contemporary art, with originally and specially commissioned pieces throughout all the hotels," says Robin Chadha, Chief Marketing Officer. "The GSA is recognised worldwide as a leading creative school for the arts, and as firm believers in helping new talent, we are particularly pleased to support the GSA MFA students graduating this year."